"Oh, you can't see him. He's a poltergeist. Actually, he's part of the security team too . . . in a way.
He's somehow attached to the land this house is built on, but don't worry. If you have permission to be here, he'll leave you alone."
Shamira gulped. "Great. Poltergeist."
"Yeah. So if you see the television on in the break room, don't turn it off. He loves soap operas." Then, as if that wasn't a weird conversation stopper, Clara continued.
"Cowboy guy there is Henry. He's a dom. The ones standing are doms if you haven't figured that out, and the kneeling ones are submissives. Lillian and Renata are the only two switches."
"Anyway, Henry and the blond guy on his knees, whose name is Bjorne, are both enforcers. Means basically they run errands, interact with the public and help keep the peace. You and Henry have a lot in common. He was a sheriff back in his mortal days. Both he and Bjorne are vampires: Bjorne is a shadow and Henry is a fledgling, but only for another six months."
"So age has nothing to do with being dominant or submissive?"
"Nope. Your personality doesn't change when you die or get older. Your body doesn't change either. So don't get a haircut unless you want to keep it for eternity.
Still, saves a ton of time on shaving your legs." She looked at the remaining folk in the room. "Let's see, a Hispanic guy on his knees is Raul, and he's a werewolf. Crap, he's security too. Never mind what I said about it being all girls earlier."
"I probably wouldn't remember it anyway."
"It's kind of a lot to remember, I know. Banshee is a shadow, but she'll be a full-blown vamp in ten years. At that point, she'll take on more responsibility in the organization and will have to give up being one of Shane's assassins."
"Assassins?"
Clara nodded. "There are very bad things out there, Shamira, and sometimes the best way to stop wholesale carnage is a tactical strike. Banshee was Yakuza back before the word became trendy, and she's good at what she does.
It'll be hard to replace her, but Shane's already looking. He'd like her to train her own replacement."
"You said 'one of' earlier. How many assassins does Shane have?"
"Two at the moment. Keep in mind, that Shane hasn't had this gig long, so he doesn't have his full staff. Most of us have been with him for a while. Reaper is the youngest of us."
"Reaper's the big black guy isn't he?"
Clara smiled. "You guessed it. Doesn't surprise you, does it? Reaper got brought over about eight years ago. He was in special forces in the army, but one of those sub-organizations that doesn't technically or legally exist. He's the best sniper that I've ever seen, and he's scary and dangerous. He's a real bonus to Shane, and he's the loyal sort. Get on his good side, and you've got a very lethal friend for life. Cross him --"
"I think I get the idea," Shamira said.
The crowd had begun dispersing, and Shane had noticed them. He made a motion with his head, causing Clara to nod. He wandered through a set of double doors, and Clara grabbed Shamira by the arm and led her after him.
She found herself in a dining room big enough to play jai-alai in if she knew how to play that game. Shane sat in a grand chair at one end.
"Please," he said in a voice as warm as fresh-baked bread, "please sit down. I'm glad to see you up and about, Miss Shamira."
"I'm glad to be up and about," she replied nervously, sitting down. 'Remember, if they wanted to kill you . . . well, I guess they did technically kill you. Okay, if they wanted you to stay dead --'
"You look remarkably well," he added, looking for the remnants of her wounds. "You should still have some indications of your ordeal, but I see none."
Clara sat down next to Shamira, sandwiching the muscular woman between the other two vamps. It was a thought that made Shamira tingle in ways she couldn't explain.
"I talked with Lillian while Shamira rested, and we agreed; we think she may be a Shadow Healer."
"A what?" Shamira asked.
"Really?" Shane looked enormously pleased. "That would explain it." He looked at Shamira's confused expression. "Occasionally, vampires gain extra abilities, but usually not until they get older.
These abilities vary widely, and we call these abilities 'Aspects.' Shadow Healing is a very rare and wondrous Aspect.
If true, it would mean that you would heal at a vastly increased rate when in total darkness, even more so than normal vampires."
"How can you know for sure?"
"Hurt you, stick you in a closet, and see how long it takes for you to heal."
Shamira blanched. "That doesn't sound like fun at all."
Shane smiled. "I understand, but it would be good to figure out." He realized something. "So you've accepted that you're a vampire? I just realized that you're actually handling this quite well."
She shrugged. "Occam's razor."
It was Clara's turn to look confused, but Shane just looked pleased.
Shamira continued. "It's something I picked up in a basic psychology course back in college. It means that given multiple alternative viable explanations, the simplest one should be believed.
Not that it's claiming that explanation is the truth, but just that you should believe it. I've seen some weird shit since being here, but it makes sense based on the legends and all. So, walks like a vampire, talks like a vampire, or a werewolf or a witch or whatever --"
"Then it makes sense to take it at face value," Shane finished. "Well done. Anyway, we could test our theory about you being a Shadow Healer with a minor cut, something that wouldn't have even been dangerous if you were still alive."
"I guess that'd be okay," she thought, genuinely curious now.
"Clara, close the doors and stand by the light switch." He waited until she was in place, then drew a pocket knife.
Making sure there weren't any potentially glowing items in the room, he drew the knife quickly across Shamira's palm.
"Fucking ouch!" Shamira said just before the lights went out.
"We'll try for ten seconds and see how it's doing," came Shane's voice. "Normally, you would need to feed at least a little to heal, otherwise it would take --"
The lights came back on. Shamira's palm had a barely perceptible red line running across her palm, and she felt no pain.
"Now THAT'S fast!" Clara said.
"She's a Shadow Healer all right."
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Shamira could see the cogs turning in Shane's head, figuring out how she could be useful to him. "Listen, I guess I owe you thanks for . . . doing what you did. I guess I'm just not sure why you did it or what you expect of me?" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a couple of the other residents arrive and be seated. She guessed it was close to dinner. "Hey . . . Uhm . . . dinner --" Clara placed a hand on her young charge's arm. "Fledglings can eat normal food or consume blood. Feeding is an art, so Shane thought it would be wise to present you with a normal meal this evening. Personally, I prefer to drink blood, but I'll be dining on solid food today. Make you feel more at home." "As for what I want from you and why I changed you --" Shane paused. "First, I owed you something for helping us out that night. I had agents in place that you couldn't have known about, but we had still found ourselves in an awkward predicament where innocents might have gotten hurt. You showed great
They got to the garage and Shamira's heart and mind took another shock. The garage was an attached building, and inside was every kind of vehicular toy you could imagine. Truck, cars, motorcycles . . . hell, there were even golf carts. "Damn, now all I need is a golf course," she murmured. Clara smiled. "Shane has a nine-hole course on the property. He turns on the night lights and plays to unwind sometimes. You play?" "A bit. I'm not great." "Shane would be thrilled to have someone to play with," Clara replied. "The only other person who plays is Banshee and well, she's a sore loser. Love her to death, but don't ever get competitive with her." "I'll keep that in mind." Normally, Shamira wasn't a car person, but she couldn't help but drool over the selection she was looking at. "Which one are we taking? Oh my God, he has a Prius?!"
"It's a magical drug. It's a mixture of vamp blood, were blood, and some faerie blood to bind it. Makes the user pretty much God-like for about thirty minutes before the crash. Unless they're in good shape, it might collapse their heart and make their brains leak out their ears. It's the most illegal drug in the underworld of course, but that doesn't stop people from dealing with it. It's death to be caught carrying or distributing.""Death?!""Considering the blood has to be harvested from a dying host, yeah. Our world is dangerous," Renata said, looking a bit impatient. "Keep that in mind."Shamira realized that not everyone in Shane's brood was necessarily happy about her being brought over. She wondered if she'd done something to offend this woman. She had seemed nice earlier, and Clara had said she was normally perky. "How many doses per vial?""One."
Travis motioned for her to follow, so the three of them went charging through the bar, through another door, and into what looked like a holding cell. A single light swung overhead, making the room seem even more ominous by casting shadows in the corners. There was also a drain in the middle of the floor. Shamira didn't want to think about that. The security forces were backed up against one wall; one perpetrator sat cowering in a corner, and the other held a young woman by the throat. "Don't come any damn closer!" the man said, snarling like an animal. His eyes were as red as a sunset and his face had lost all vestiges of humanity. "Clear the damn way! I'm taking her and leaving. Anyone tries to stop me and she dies, along with the would-be hero. Got that?" Travis motioned for Renata and Shamira to move back. They wer
'Screw him,' she thought. 'This is his fault, so he doesn't get a break.' She threw a punch as his too-damn-pretty-anyway face, but she missed by a country mile. He had moved so quickly that it was as if she had swung at him in deep water. Her next swing missed as well, as did her attempt to kick him in the knee."Fight me damn it," Shamira growled when she realized that Shane wouldn't fight back. She stood there for a moment, wanting badly for him to swing. She wanted him to hit her so hard that she didn't wake up again. She wanted anything but to feel the way that she did at that moment. "You should have just let me die. Why couldn't you just let me die?"He sighed. "Because I saw someone I thought would be worth saving. I don't regret it. You saved an innocent life tonight. Doesn't that count in your mind?""I killed someone!" she hissed violently. "I don't even know what the hell I am. I d
He stood up. "I would like my keys back though. You stranded the others at Prometheus." He smiled, but she didn't smile back. She just handed over the keys. "I won't ask that you make your decision now. You haven't even really had a chance to get used to being a vampire yet, much less this other business.You are welcome to stay at the house while you figure things out. Talk to the others. They can help, and they want to. Clara has been sick with worry since you ran out." He raised his eyebrows and smirked. "And if you think that I have unusual designs for you and your body, then you might want to ask her what SHE'S been thinking." He got into his car and drove away.Shamira shivered a bit, but not from the cold. Sure, Clara had made some "interesting" comments, but she had just assumed it was vampire freakiness. But she wanted Shamira too?She took another look at her family hom
The next evening . . . Shamira had never been a big shopper before, much less closed down the mall. It seemed that her traveling companions were more than used to it. She learned some things about them, such as the fact that Lillian and Monique had both once been swimsuit models as well as lovers. Lillian had taken up the art of necromancy when she was younger but kept it relatively in the background until the night that she and Monique had been attacked by a rogue werewolf while walking through the woods in Northern Georgia. The wolf hadn't realized that necromancy was potent magic, as Lillian had sucked the life energy right out of him before managing to kill him with the animated skeleton of a ten-point buck. But Monique had already been bitten, so Lillian had to keep her lover alive and help her adjust to the new world
Two hours later . . ."How's she doing?" Shane whispered as he and Reaper watched Shamira go through her strength tests. Vampires were stronger than humans, so having a standard gym was impractical. Instead, they had a set of hydraulic equipment that was derived from the stuff used to test the power of heavy-duty industrial machines.The big black man didn't bother to glance at his clipboard. Reaper probably never forgot anything he heard or saw. His brain would probably explode with information in about a century or so."Well, she's bench-pressing about half a ton, she did the twenty-yard shuttle run agility test in 1.5 seconds, did the hundred-yard dash in 4.23 seconds, scored higher on her shooting proficiency than anyone here besides me --" He paused. "Shane, have you ever met a fledgling so advanced?""No," Shane said. "Shadow H